


Suitably Manly and Heroic

by celeste9



Category: Primeval
Genre: Confrontations, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 04:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3105860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker returns from a shout feeling rather pleased with himself. Then he sees Jess and Lester.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suitably Manly and Heroic

**Author's Note:**

> Fills 'attacked by a creature' on my hc_bingo card, which FINALLY gives me a bingo! Thanks to deinonychus_1 for last minute prompting.

Becker walked into the ARC with a little bit of what could be labeled a strut and a swagger, which he felt was entirely acceptable. Incursion taken care of, giant smelly pig thing back in its own time, innocents saved. All in all, a productive day. He didn’t like to say so, but if he were being honest, Becker had been _very_ heroic today. There were going to be scars.

“You should get those cuts looked at,” Abby said, eyeing him.

“What, this?” Becker glanced down at his ripped shirt and the thin cuts revealed beneath. “Not even bleeding. I’ll be fine.” All in a day’s work, really.

“If you say so,” she said dubiously.

Becker came to a sudden stop when he realised that Jess and Lester were both standing at the bottom of the steps leading up from the hub, arms crossed, matching unimpressed expressions on their faces. Well. Who had pissed in their coffee this morning?

“Going for the Captain Kirk look, are you, Captain?” Lester said.

“Watched a lot of Star Trek with Connor, did you, sir?”

The grin slipped off Becker’s face when both Lester and Jess continued to stare daggers at him. Abby and the others had slunk off somewhere out of range of the prospective fireworks.

Oh, bugger. Becker suspected he wouldn’t like this at all.

“No one died?” he tried.

“No one died?” Lester repeated. “What a ringing endorsement. Perhaps we should take that as our motto. No one died today, go team!”

Jess was still glaring at Becker. He couldn’t remember ever having seen her this angry before. It wasn’t like he had ever _really_ been in danger, they were taking this a bit too far -

“Do you ever stop to think?” Jess said. She was coming up the stairs now, stopping in front of Becker. She was so small that Becker needed to drop his gaze to meet her eyes even when she was standing on the same level as him, but her physicality was certainly the only aspect of her which could be referred to as diminutive.

“Ever?” Jess went on. “Do you ever bloody think? Or do you just run half-cocked into things, hoping for the best? Do you _want_ to get yourself killed?”

“Jess, I--”

“No! You don’t get to talk. I don’t want your excuses. Your excuses are going to put you right into a body bag and then _I’m_ going to have to--” Jess fell silent, her eyes a bit wet.

Becker wanted to punch himself in the face for ever having done something that could bring Jess Parker close to tears, let alone having done such a thing repeatedly. Because, okay, yes. He could admit that he might be a tad reckless. Just a little bit. He did run around without thinking because, let’s be honest, he enjoyed the thrill, he enjoyed the adrenaline rush.

And he enjoyed playing the hero.

Completely at a loss, Becker looked to Lester, but Lester’s expression was saying things like, _this is your own mess, fix it yourself,_ and, _how dare you hurt her, you bastard._

No, Becker would find no assistance in that direction. Lester only moved up the stairs so he could lay a hand on Jess’ shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Becker said, but that earned him no response.

This was going to be difficult. Damn it, he was going to have to talk about his feelings. The things he did for these people.

“I’m not going to promise I won’t do it again, because we all know that would be bollocks. I will do it again. Maybe the next time I’ll actually be seriously hurt. And you know what? That still wouldn’t stop me. Being a soldier is my job, and it’s my job to put the lives of others before my own.”

“Being a soldier doesn’t mean you have to constantly take foolish risks,” Lester said.

“Perhaps not,” Becker agreed. Good soldiers were careful, and assessed risk. He had learned that from Ryan. But Becker could only be himself. “I hope you know that it’s never my intention to worry you, and I’m sorry that I do. All I can say is that I will try. I know that isn’t worth much, but I will. I’ll try to always come back because I don’t want… I don’t want to hurt you, I really don’t.”

“Those are just words,” Jess said, but she seemed calmer now, and faintly mollified.

“That’s all I have.” Then an idea struck Becker. He spat in his hand, holding it out. “Spit swear?”

“Ewwwwwww!” Jess wrinkled her nose. She was nearly laughing, though, and that had mostly been Becker’s intent all along.

To his surprise, though, Jess rather daintily spat in her own hand (as daintily as one could spit, anyway) and then reached out and shook Becker’s. “You swear?”

“Yes, I swear,” Becker said in all seriousness.

Jess nodded. “Good.”

Feeling some of his earlier jauntiness return, Becker turned to Lester. “How about it, Lester? You want in on this?”

“Good heavens, no,” Lester said, practically recoiling.

Jess was truly smiling now and that did more to reassure Becker than anything else could have. She pressed her hand lightly to his chest. “Shouldn’t you see a medic?”

Somehow it was different with Jess saying so. He wondered what her opinion on scars was. “All right.”

Lester simply looked at them both and said, “I hope you’re not thinking to claim that shirt on expenses.”

**_End_ **


End file.
